Un Presidente “reattivo”: il semipresidenzialismo austriaco

Abstract

A Responsive President: the Austrian Semi-presidential Executive – The article analyses the Austrian form of government. First, it discusses the viability of the classification of the Austrian form as a semi-presidential executive, given its significant peculiarities. The historical evolution of the Austrian form and the compromise between presidentialism and parliamentarism represented by the 1929 constitutional reform proves the distinctiveness of the Austrian experience. Then the focus moves to the constitutional provisions devoted to the President and to his relationship with the other branches of government. What emerges from the analysis is a President that can be qualified as responsive, meaning that he exercises his powers very rarely on his own initiative, rather on the input of other constitutional bodies, mainly the government. This peculiarity may explain why the Austrian experience never turned into a model of semi-presidentialism. Nevertheless, the President has proved to be an effective balancing power in the moments of major crisis, as in the last decade with the end of the big coalition governments.